by Olwetu Batyi | Apr 24, 2023 | Uncategorized
Joint government investment to bolster primary wool producers
The investment by the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform and the Chris Hani District Municipality in primary wool production in Embekweni Village outside Whittlesea is expected to bring sustainability to local wool growers.
On Thursday [April 20, 2023] MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Nonkqubela Pieters officially handed over a fully-fledged sheep shearing shed to Embekweni woolgrowers for use while on the same day the Chris Hani District Municipality handed over 100 rams of Dohne Merino sheep to improve the quality of clip produced by communal farmers across the district.
Chris Hani District Municipality is the province’s top wool producer. A total of 20 293 bales of wool were produced in the five districts of the Eastern Cape in the year 2022. The clip was gathered from 1 202 shearing sheds with the Chris Hani District being the biggest contributor with 457 sheds that produced 7079 bales.
Embekweni woolgrowers are an affiliate of Mgijima Woolgrowers Association under the Chris Hani Woolgrowers Association. The local growers boast with a flock of 3522 sheep that belong to its 83 members whom 31 of are women.
In the past year, they banked over R1.2 million from sale of 83 bales off of their wool clip.
Their wool clip is sheared off the sheep, sorted, packed and transported to a Gqeberha-based agent who then sells it to international markets.
According to the chairperson of the Enoch Mgijima Woolgrowers Association Siyambonga Booi, the intergovernmental investment is bound to strengthen primary production in the district.
“Emerging producers, especially those from previously disadvantaged backgrounds aren’t participating meaningfully in wool production and this is all attributed to wool quality. Our counterparts sell 1kg of wool for R300 while majority of emerging black growers sell 1kg between R150 and R200. This has nothing to do with race. It is a matter of quality,” said Booi.
Booi acknowledged that government investment in wool production through the construction of shearing sheds and livestock improvement programmes has professionalized a large number of previously marginalized groups.
“In the past livestock farming used to be a men’s field in rural areas but because we’ve been made to realise its commercial value, it has become a source of living even in women-led households,” he said.
Nosakhele Feni is one of the group of women who are founding members of Embekweni Woolgrowers who started with two sheep but now has a flock of 132 sheep.
“I am a mother of 8 and none of them is working. The sheep have become our main source of income from selling their wool to selling the actual sheep. Ukulima bubomi [Farming is life,” Feni stressed.
Embekweni Woolgrowers came into existence in 1976 but all the years they had been operating on informal structures until the year 2007 when the members decided to finance a construction of a better structure from their savings.
However, even the one they had built on their own could not help them produce to their full potential.
During the 2018/19 financial year, their application for infrastructural support was approved by the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform and R1.1 million was invested in the construction of the shearing shed.
The Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform continues to invest strategically in both livestock and wool production.
In her 2023/24 fiscal year budget speech, MEC Pieters committed an amount of R42.5 million towards livestock production, construction of multipurpose sheds and other relevant infrastructure.
Pieters said the firming of primary wool production presented an investment opportunity for secondary role players in the industry.
“Now that your government has catapulted you to a professional level of wool producers a gap for processing has been opened. DRDAR alone cannot finance every economic development programme in the agricultural sector. It is for this reason that we work hand in glove with the private sector and other role players to create more opportunities and add value to our primary and raw products,” she said.
She further committed that the department would swiftly engage the national department of Water and Sanitation to address hindrances around the provision of water in the Embekweni area.
“The stock dams that are said to be silted will also be attended to. This has been budgeted for,” she said.
by Olwetu Batyi | Mar 29, 2023 | Uncategorized
75902 – ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN 2023 -24 Text 200 Pages (2)
by Olwetu Batyi | Mar 29, 2023 | Uncategorized
Izinini Community Property Association chairperson Dumisani Siyele, DRDAR MEC, Nonkqubela Pieters and Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister, Thoko Didiza lift aloft the title deed confirming ownership of 1 282 hectares of land successfully claimed by Izinini community through the land claims process. The CPA uses some of this land for commercial forestry production and sell their logs to SAPPI.
by Olwetu Batyi | Oct 13, 2022 | Uncategorized
MHLONTLO FARMERS SAY NEW SHEARING SHEDS WILL IMPROVE THEIR BUSINESS
SHEEP farmers, who are also wool growers in 10 Tsolo and Qumbu villages said the the shearing sheds handed over by the Eastern Cape MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Nonkqubela Pieters, said the new facilities will help improve their businesses as they will now sell pure quality wool using the new structures.
As part of rolling out programmes to grow the province’s agriculture economy, Pieters handed over 10 shearing sheds with shearing equipment with each wool grower’s association getting a structure that comes with a small flock dipping tank, fence and medicine for 3000 sheep.
During the handing over of the shearing sheds, Pieters also handed over 121 rams to local farmers, which will be used to improve genetic condition of local flock owned by local wool growers. She also announced that her department has handed over 36 bulls to farmers in Mhlontlo to improve quality of their herd and increase numbers.
Local farmer and wool grower, Nozipho Tokuzwayo said they were very happy and excited as Mhlontlo farmers with the handing over and opening of these shearing sheds because previously farmers used to shear their sheep in their homes.
“Our wool was contaminated by dirt. We are happy and excited because since the construction of this shearing shed we now have a good structure for shearing and our wool is clean. The rams we got from the government contributed a lot in improving the quality of our wool clip. As a result, we now get better money for our wool because of these rams that give us better quality wool,” said Tokuzwayo.
Her colleague, Mandlovandile Rala said previously when they sheared in their houses they had a problem of poor quality wool but now that they use these sheds they will fetch better money from the markets.
“The shearing shed is where we shear our sheep, get clean wool and even get better money from selling our wool to the markets because of these resources. The other thing is that this develops us because we get new ways to sort our wool according to different parts of the sheep. The rams improve the genetic condition of our flock and give us sheep with improved genetics, great condition and they fetch good money from the markets which improve our businesses,” said Rala.
He added that they are happy with the medicine they got from Pieters because it will improve condition of their sheep because conditioned sheep brings them money through wool and selling it for meat.
Pieters said the Department made this investment in the farmers to assist them to improve their herd, improve quality of their wool clip to be the same quality needed by the markets.
“We invested R10.9 million in the construction of these ten shearing sheds in Mhlontlo alone. When we handover shearing sheds we don’t just give farmers an empty building, we include shearing equipment that farmers need like sorting tables to sort their wool, press it properly so that they stop asking their kids to press it using their feet. Farmers will now weigh their wool so that each person knows how much their wool weighs because the money they get from selling their wool is according to their wool weight and quality,” said Pieters.
She added that Mhlontlo farmers are not only farming with livestock because they also produce crops like grain which her Department also invests in with some farmers getting mechanisation support, others seeds and fertiliser. Ends…
by Olwetu Batyi | Sep 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
PIETERS DELIVERS SHEARING-SHEDS TO EC FARMERS
By Thozi ka Manyisana
GOVERNMENT infrastructure investment in the lucrative wool industry is creating a conducive
environment for communal and emerging farmers to participate meaningfully in one of the
province’s high potential industries that inject much needed income to the economy of the
Eastern Cape.
In pursuit of inclusive economic growth, Department of Rural Development and
Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) MEC Nonkqubela Pieters officially handed over some of the multi
purpose shearing sheds with dipping tanks, animal handling facilities, shearing equipment,
water tanks and ablution facilities to groups of farmers across the province.
In the 2020/21 financial year, DRDAR completed 13 shearing sheds, distributed 584 rams to
communal and emerging farmers of the Eastern Cape as part of its investment in the wool
production businesses of these farmers. A total of 437 farmers exported 4 million kilograms of
wool in the same year.
In the current financial year R22 million is invested in the construction
of 16 shearing sheds, with R15 million injected in the procurement and distribution of sheep and
goats with superior genetics to help improve the quality of the province’s wool clip.
“A lot has been done by the current government because today we see shearing sheds in the
village that can produce the same quality as commercial farmers,” said Pieters during one of the events where she handed keys to excited farmers.
Pieters was told stories by jovial farmers of how the new shearing sheds delivered them from struggles of shearing in rondavels and zinc structures with no shearing equipment. Drdar’s Extension officials are tasked with ensuring that wool grower’s associations don’t sell their wool to informal markets such as bakkies, popularly known as “Boya-Boya” but send their clip to credible companies and buyer BKB.
One of the wool growers benefiting from the Department’s investment is Nkosinathi Nunu, the Chairperson of Ensam Shearing Shed which was with DRDAR’s R900 000 investment. Nunu said: “It has been a long journey in the dark but today is the break of a new dawn. The old shed we built with iron sheets devalued our wool because it. had water leaks and we didn’t have proper equipment to prepare our wool for the market post shearing.”
He believes that with the dip tank that comes with the new shed built by DRDAR, their sheep will be free of diseases like the sheep scab that does not only affect the quality of their wool but also kills their sheep. Jubilant wool growers from Mtyatya village in Calawelcomed the R1.1 million worth multipurpose shearing shed that was handed over to them by Pieters. They said the new multi-purpose shearing shed infrastructure will not only assist them to produce quality wool but will also improve the lives of their flock as it includes a dipping tank. “I would be jumping up and down now if I was still young to show you how happy I am with the delivery of this structure. It has
always been my dream that this shed should be built and finished while I am still alive and able to
see,” said local veteran wool grower, Qiqi Tibisano. As part of ongoing efforts to expand construction of agriculture infrastructure to grow the economy, the DRDAR joined forces with Intsika Yethu local municipality in the construction of the Ncora Flats Shearing Shed. At this shed, DRDAR focused on the drainage system, a dipping tank and the animal handling facility. “As the Eastern Cape government this is the encouragement we need from our farmers, to be initiators (Vukuzenzele) so that we support ambitious people and take them further,” said Pieters during the handover. One of the beneficiaries, Lonwabo Nelani said: ” We have waited for so long for this day, which means the official opening of our factory and our legacy to use. We are grateful for what our fathers left for us and we will always take good care of it”. On other hand, Sibanye Stillwater injected R1,2 million in the construction of the Silulutho Shearing Shed in Ngudle village in Tsomo as part of its community development programme where it develops communities in partnership with government departments like the DRDAR. There are many other shearing sheds in the province that
will be opened and handed over to farmers as and when they are completed by contractors hired by
the DRDAR to build them for farmers.
by Olwetu Batyi | Sep 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Mazie, veggie farmer encourages women to join agriculture
ZIMASA NTLANGULA, one of the members of Amantonta Agro processing family cooperative in Ntabankulu says she never imagined herself in the agriculture sector.
Excited by the bountiful harvest of their business from production funded by the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Ntlangula said when her parents and siblings started their maize production business in the Mvenyane village of Ntabankulu in the Eastern Cape, she did not join them until her love for agriculture was stirred up by the work they put in the business and opportunities created by the enterprise.
Ntlangula said at first she had no interest in the agriculture business but when she looked at the business in the first year and saw its progress, she decided to join forces with her family. “In the early stages of the business there were ups and downs. There were times where I felt like giving up but we realised that our dream will manifest. So this and lack of job opportunities here also attracted me to the business,” said Ntlangula, adding that in their family business every member contributes to the hard work.
As a young woman, Ntlangula said she is happy that women are free to do any work in the country. “When we were growing up our mothers did not have these opportunities. They depended on our fathers but now I feel free because I can do any job I want to do without anyone blocking me and even telling me what to do,” she said.
With their business harvesting 6 tonnes per hectare from 350 hectares of land in Mvenyane, she said: “I am happy that we are harvesting this tonnage because in the beginning this land was fallow.
At first we were not certain we would be able to accomplish what we wanted to do; but now here is our great harvest. It makes us very excited. This harvest shows that we know what we are doing.”
She encourages other women, especially young women to take up opportunities in the agriculture sector, throwing a caveat that agriculture is not an easy business. “It is tough in this business but if you are committed you can do it. Don’t put money first, focus on producing. See what your produce will give you. Don’t put money first, it will come later. You must commit to the agriculture work and have passion for it. I encourage other women to take up agriculture,” said Ntlangula
